Takumi Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Fresno

I’ll start this off by saying this is my favorite place to go to for Japanese food although after the last two visits, I would like to talk with the management before going back. I visited the restaurant in January for my birthday, it was overall a good experience except for the hair I found in my food. Unfortunately, I knew it was not mine nor the people sitting around me by the length and color of it, But it did match up with the cooks hair. After finding it in my food, I did lose my appetite and it spoiled my birthday dinner just a little bit. Although overall, it was a good time. Before I left, I let the manager know that the cook had some hair poking out and unfortunately, I found one of his hairs in my food. I Was super friendly and just let the manager know maybe some hair nets would help. That night me and my bf spent around $150 for us two. I didn’t ask for a discount, but the manager also didn’t offer a discount for the hair that was in my food. I didn’t let it bother me because I still really enjoyed the restaurant. My bf and I decided to go back for Valentines, which was yesterday. The dinner started off super nice and the server was excellent. Out of all the times, I’ve been to a Japanese restaurant, he was the best server we have ever had. The serve had some x tattoos and a smiley face on his hand, unfortunately I’m not sure of his name. When the server came to take our order, he asked us if if there’s anything we did not like in our food. My bf and I said no mushrooms and a guy across from us said no shrimp. The server asked us if it was an allergy or preference my bf and I let them know that it was a preference. Eventually, the cook came out and went over our orders, He asked us about the mushrooms and we said we would not like mushrooms please. He said that The mushrooms were on the same plate as veggies, but he would try to separate just a little bit without mushrooms for us. We said that was OK and that works for us. Although when it came time to him making the vegetables, he dumped them all on the grill and mixed them all together. My bf and I were both very confused because the server had asked us if there was anything we didn’t want which is why we said mushrooms. We didn’t understand why they would ask us, just to not do it. When the cook was making the vegetables the server came up and let him know that we both asked for no mushrooms. The Cook told the server that we weren't allergic so basically it was fine. That had really rubbed me the wrong way. My bf ended up asking the cook to put his vegetables on my plate, but it turns out that there wasn’t enough vegetables for my bf anyways. We didn’t say anything, but we did pay for them, and I was gonna eat them since my bf wouldn’t. So we ended up paying $45 for some shrimp, steak and rice for my bf. Also When he served the rice, the proportions were very inconsistent. Both my bf and the other guy at the table ended up with a lot of rice, And everyone else with less. We were already pretty disappointed when I found hair in my food again. This time I was pretty positive that it was my boyfriend's, Although I couldn’t be 100% because once again, the cooks hair was out along with his facial hair. I ended up giving the rest of my food to my bf because my appetite was gone at this point. Before I bring up the next thing, I would like to mention that I’ve worked in food service and I’ve taken the serv safe course which is why I know this. During the whole time that the cook was making the food, he was also grabbing his phone to play music. I let it go because he wasn’t directly touching the food, but then when it came time to make the shrimp he squeezed the Lemmon with his bare hands on to the shrimp after he had touched his phone, which I know harbors bacteria. Unfortunately the whole experience was not good, and we ended up paying $100 for 2 meals and 2 sodas. We barley got any food, and didn’t even get all the food we had paid for. I would love to go back, so hopefully some upper management will reach out to resolve...

This is a letter I sent to the management after my last visit on 2/17/14, they need to make some staffing changes:

I have frequented your establishment many times since you have opened and for the most part the food and service has been great. Unfortunately my last visit there, on Monday February 17th was the most awful customer service I have received, with the exception of the bartender who ended up acting as our server.

When we arrived there was a short wait so my guest and I sat at the bar and ordered a drink and appetizer as we waited for a Tepanyaki table to open up. We were then seated. There was one other couple sitting at the table, and then the last few remaining guests seats were filled. Our order was taken, soup and salad served immediately, and then there our whole table sat. Never getting checked on once, and we ended up waiting almost a complete hour with no service and no chef in site. A table behind us that was seated well after we came had a chef before us, while they were still receiving their appetizers. I had to go to the bar just to get a water refill and to order additional cocktails.

Finally one of the other guests at our table located our server to ask where our chef was, she snapped at him and he was told he is right there on his way. It took all we had for us to all not get up from the table and leave, and I didn’t even know the party next to us but they were just as upset as my guest and I. Even after I had brought to the bartenders attention that we were not getting any service, our server still did not come and attend to us. I had to clear my own cups and bring them to the bar so we would have room at the table.

When the server did finally appear after the food was prepared, there was no apology, just “do you need a container?” This is by far the worst customer service I have ever received and the first time in my life I didn’t tip a server. I did however go out of my way to thank the Bartender for all her help and we tipped her since she did most of everything. She was very apologetic for the experience we had, which was sad as she was awesome.

There are plenty of choices of Japanese Restaurants in this town, and unfortunately you will no longer be one that me or my guest will be going to. You have Edo-Ya within a couple of blocks of there, and although they are an older establishment, I have never been treated poorly there. I just thought you should be aware of the service that I received. I am attaching the receipts from our...

Stay away from this place. Outrageous prices, the meat portions for the prices are too small. Bad service, an 18% Charged tip on the bill without any efford from the waitress nor the cook to try to earn it. Burned food and not too much of a show at the teppanyaki. We were there about 3 years ago and the chef was a bit rude, but overall he did a good job so we decided to give it another chance. Well, as you enter there is a sign letting you know you have to pay a 18% tip; they call it Automatic Gratuity. It was my wife's birthday so I didn't make a fuzz. It was not busy and we got a table and ordered drinks. Everyone had some kind of soda, but I had water. Big Mistake-- tap water. It was disgusting. They do not have filtered water. I talked to the manager on the side and he said he has being TRYING to fix the water problem for a year because he has a lot of complains. Really? One year. We ordered the teriyaki chicken $21.95, the Teriyaki Sliced Steak $24.95 and the New York & Chicken $33.95 for a whopping total of 119.48 including the forced tip $17.01. We waited way too much even though the restaurant was almost empty. When the chef came and started cooking, right off the bat he burned the egg and kept cooking the rice on the burned egg stucked to the grill. I was looking for a taste of the $33 New York Steak, but when it was ready he cut it in pices and left all the juices evaporated on the grill and kept cooking the diced steak. Meanwhile the vegetables were burning. To make matters worst, he didn't do tricks while he cooked our dinner. Yes, he made a volcano with the onion and cracked an egg open in the air with the spatula but we were waiting for more tricks and NOTHING. So no show, burned food, bad service, nasty water and outrageous prices. To put it into perspective, know this, we had a great dinner that week at Red Lobster for half the price and eventhough the service was not excellent we leftt a tip. At Takumi, with the charged tip attached to your bill before they earn it, it is obvious there is no need for the staff to put any effort to earn the tip. Go to another Japanese restaurant because this one is just a BIG...